Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
My father holds his hands up, raising them slowly, keeping his eyes locked on Aries. "Okay, big guy, I'm not leaving yet."
Aries steps to get around my father, and Drew steps into place beside him.
“Listen to her, or we kill you. It’s really that simple,” he says.
“Don’t do this. I promise you, you’ll all pay the price.” My father’s menacing voice makes me shiver.
“Back up!” Aries orders, and to my complete shock my father listens. Forcing my father deeper into the room, Drew and Aries continue forward, followed by Lee, who is dragging someone behind him. There’s a black pillowcase covering the person’s face, so I don’t know who they are yet. Lee discards the person in a heap at Sebastian’s feet—a woman given the heels on her feet and the bright red dress she’s wearing.
"Special delivery." Lee smiles and then tugs the pillow case off her head.
The puzzle pieces in my mind come together before the fabric disappears. Tanya
Sebastian recoils, his back hitting the wall near the fireplace. "Tanya?"
She rolls over and shifts so her legs are beside her in her long red sheath dress. Daggers shoot from her eyes. She’s pissed off, but that’s the comic relief in this tragedy.
The people who hurt us the most never expect us to get revenge. They never see us coming, because they beat us down to a point of weakness that they never would have expected us to fight back from. But that’s where they went wrong. That’s their fatal flaw.
They underestimated us, and now they’ll pay.
Lee undoes the gag at the back of her head. “You’re welcome.”
“What the fuck is going on? Why did you sic your hounds on me?"
Sebastian’s gaze swings towards my father, who took advantage of the distraction to slowly inch his way closer and closer to me.
I back up into Sebastian's side. "Stop moving, or I will fucking shoot you."
"You don't even know how to use that thing. Why don’t you give the gun to one of the big boys and run off so the men can talk.”
Once again he's patronizing me, and I'm done. He's never cared about me. He's only ever seen me as a means to an end, and if he learns one thing before he dies, it’ll be that I wasn’t weak.
Crossing the space between us, I press the muzzle to his forehead.
Lee and Drew chuckle and split off from behind him to opposite sides of the room.
"Your cruelty ends here. Apologize. Admit your mistakes.”
My father shifts, and clasps his hands over his belly. "My mistakes? The only mistake I ever had was keeping you after your mother’s death. I should’ve left you to die, but I didn’t. And for what? You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass since then.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I try to hide the emotion from my voice and raise my right arm to show him the circle patterns just below my elbow joint. "Part of me wishes you would’ve left me to die then, too, because maybe then I wouldn’t have endured all the pain and suffering I did. Remember this?” I point to my arm. “These scars are from the time you let one of your friends burn me with cigarettes because he paid you fifty bucks." I lift my shirt and show him the smooth, long gash on my belly. "This was the time you wanted to see if you had sharpened your knife well enough and needed a test subject.” I drop the fabric and wrap both hands around the gun again. A rush of tears escapes my eyes, and trails down my cheeks.
The man in front of me doesn’t even blink. He doesn’t show a single emotion outside of irritation. I shake my head. "You don't feel anything do you? Not one bit of remorse?"
His cold, flat eyes meet mine. "If you’re expecting me to apologize, I won’t. I'm not sorry. You could have left anytime you wanted."
"Oh yes, anytime I wanted to.” I scream the words into his face. “Because that’s worked out so fucking well for me, huh?”
He tips his chin up, his face reflecting nothing but arrogance. "Like I’ve always told you, Ely. Your suffering is your own fault. Now I’m done here. Either fucking shoot me, or watch me walk out the door. I bet you don't even know how to..."
Every hit, bruise, scar, and terrible word flung my way trickles down to this one single moment. I don’t think about the guilt that will come from killing another person. I don’t think about the sadness of losing the man who was supposed to be my father, my protector. I don’t think, at all. All I see in front of me is a man standing between me and happiness. A future I deserve to have without fear of him destroying.